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AGONY IN THE GARDEN

Name: AGONY IN THE GARDEN
Author: John van der Zee
ISBN: 1-56025-471-8

SEX, LIES AND REDEMPTION FROM THE TROUBLED HEART OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

by John van der Zee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2003

Sure to excite controversy, a strong indictment that turns over large stones and finds hellish serpents underneath.

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An ugly true tale of pastoral wrongdoing by lapsed Catholic and accomplished reporter van der Zee (The Gate, 1987, etc.).

In the diocese of Santa Rosa, California, until very recently, the corruption began at the top, with a sexually predatory bishop who responded to charges that one of his priests had been embezzling funds by embarking on a years-long affair with that subordinate, diverting yet more dollars from the church into the priest’s bank account to secure his silence. Though victimized, the priest deserved little sympathy; he was in essence a con man practicing religion without a license, and he found himself in an ideal position to blackmail the boss. In the meanwhile, van der Zee chronicles, other priests and monsignors in the remote diocese—a place to which clerics who had committed crimes or sins elsewhere had long been banished—were busily preying on teenage boys, siphoning funds, and otherwise doing things holy men are not supposed to do. Not that this is a surprise, van der Zee writes in one of his analytical asides; citing a study by a former Benedictine, he estimates that only half of all priests practice celibacy, while of the rest “ten percent have homosexual behaviors, five percent are problem masturbators, four percent are ephebephiles—involved with adolescent partners—two percent are pedophiles and one percent are transvestites.” Regardless of the soundness of those figures, it’s clear to van der Zee that the sexual scandals now embroiling the Church have much to do with the exclusion of married heterosexuals and women from the priesthood—and with a culture that, as in the Santa Rosa diocese, protects its persistent sinners rather than exacting confession and punishment.

Sure to excite controversy, a strong indictment that turns over large stones and finds hellish serpents underneath.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2003

ISBN: 1-56025-471-8

Page Count: 304

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002

Categories:

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

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OVERKILL

MASS MURDER AND SERIAL KILLING EXPOSED

by James Alan Fox & Jack Levin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

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A successfully realized and unique overview of an up-to-date police methodology—the new science of psychological forensics— that has grown apace with serial murder, and a plethora of cases, famous and obscure, that illustrate it. Fox and Levin (Mass Murder, not reviewed) carefully enumerate the three types of mass murderers: sociopaths who kill for thrills and self-aggrandizement; political and psychotic fanatics (i.e., the Manson ``family''); and ``thrill killers,'' who statistics indicate may constitute two-thirds of all serial killers. At this point the authors introduce the new psychological profiling techniques developed by behavioral scientists at the FBI. These profiles comprise a kind of ``template'' that is used as an investigative tool; they include the murderer's age, race, sex, marital and employment status, possible criminal record, relationship to the victim, and likelihood of committing future crimes. For example, the typical serial killer is intelligent, socially and sexually competent, a first- or second-born child, and a skilled worker. He lives with a partner, is mobile, drives a relatively new car, and follows his crime in the media. Contrary to popular mythology, he is not a nomad or a recluse and hardly ever uses a firearm. The authors develop this material in fascinating detail, explaining such factors as ``linkage blindness,'' an obstacle to detection arising when a killer commits felonies in multiple jurisdictions, even if consistent in modus operandi. (Enforcement personnel in various jurisdictions do not always talk to each other.) Compelling revelations for serious students of mass murder; for those whose interest is mainly macabre, there are plenty of side trips into the bubble and squeak of cases both famous and obscure.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-306-44771-1

Page Count: 260

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

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BEYOND THE PROMISED LAND

JEWS AND ARABS ON A HARD ROAD TO A NEW ISRAEL

by Glenn Frankel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1994

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An erudite, astute synopsis of Israel's economic, social, and political upheavals from 1987 to 1993. Frankel, a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist who served as Jerusalem bureau chief for the Washington Post from 1986 to 1989, collected an impressive amount of material in the course of his reporting. He uses it to build a history of the tumultuous events that have challenged Israel in recent years: the intifada, the Persian Gulf War, the huge influx of Soviet Jews, the interactions of Knesset members, the confrontations between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the Labor Party's defeat of the right-wing Likud Party in 1992, and the momentous Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. Frankel's prevailing theme in his analysis of these events is that a younger, more progressive-minded citizenship is now shaping Israel's future. Gone, he says, are outdated, Socialist-Zionist attitudes; the new consumer-oriented, Westernized attractions are ``in.'' Israelis feel, says Frankel, that for the first time since the 1948 establishment of the state, Israel is strong enough to create history—as opposed to being defined by it—and thus to make peace with its enemies. He writes that Israel is ``still cognizant of its tragic, heroic, bloodstained past, but it [is] more self-confident, pluralistic, open and bourgeois.'' This belief is most effectively argued in the final chapters, which culminate in the pivotal resolution between Israel and the PLO. Displaying impeccable precision and clarity, Frankel delves deep into the mindsets and backgrounds of Israelis and Arabs—VIPs and civilians alike—to elucidate their often complex, emotion-filled decisions. He explains, for instance, why European-born Yitzhak Shamir was unable to move forward with peace while his Israeli-born successor, Yitzhak Rabin, was. Steeped in thoughtful commentary and deftly written with a reporter's eye for detail, this comprehensive history is a jewel. (Author tour)